How dance therapy releases trauma from the nervous system
By Orit Krug | June 19th, 2020
Dance therapy releases trauma from the nervous system by helping you to reconnect to your body again after numbing and dissociating, perhaps for a long time.
When your nervous system is triggered and responds automatically to past traumatic experiences, it does so usually in one of four ways: fight, flight, freeze, or shut down.
If you find that this is happening more and more often in your romantic relationships, then it’s a strong indication that it may be time to release trauma from your nervous system.
How dance therapy can help with releasing trauma from the nervous system
Trauma memories are stored in our body as fragments of sensations and emotions; therefore, moving our body in new ways often stirs up this past trauma. Working with a Board-Certified Dance/Movement Therapist, who’s trained in healing trauma, will help you gently and safely connect to your body again without getting hijacked by these old memories.
As a Dance/Movement Therapist myself, I am trained to see my clients’ micro-movements and attune to their micro-body signals that tell me they may be having a fear response, as we’re moving in session together. However, instead of their nervous system hijacking their bodies physical & emotional responses, I help them regulate and remain present in their bodies and our therapeutic relationship.
This means that although they may feel the fear arise, their system won’t react in fight, flight, freeze, or shut down mode. They begin to stay connected within themselves and all their relationships, and they become in command over how their bodies respond to fear and stress.
Releasing trauma by rewiring your nervous system
The movements that you might experience through a trauma-informed and neuroscience-backed Dance Therapy program allow you to rewire your nervous system right there in the present moment of each session. This happens by expanding your window of tolerance around what currently triggers you and what feels scary to you.
The more you can feel the fear come up in your body and move through the fear, instead of reacting in survival mode, the less scary your triggers feel and the more you can stay present and connected in your romantic relationships and beyond.
In your relationship this looks like truly hearing your partner when they speak, listening without reacting defensively, speaking up instead of running out on a conflict, and wholeheartedly letting your partner’s love flow in.
Dance Therapy through play and creativity
What sets Dance Therapy apart from other therapeutic modalities are the elements of play and creative movements. These systematic and organic movement processes allow you to PHYSICALLY become a healthier, happier version of you. It’s no longer a theory that you think or talk about to your friends or therapist. It becomes real in your body, where you feel incredible shifts instead of just imagining them. Your change becomes embodied.
Plus, when you engage in play or creative movement in a healthy therapeutic relationship, you can be guided to bring your nervous system to a Sympathetic State or Mobilization state without fear (the sympathetic / mobilization state is also known as the “Fight/Flight” state).
The more you have healthy, fear-less experiences in movement and play in Dance Therapy, the quicker you can teach your body that you CAN be in an activated nervous system state without fighting or running away. As you can see in the infographic above, this means you would be able to play, have sex, be sensual, speak up, and follow through on many more healthy patterns without sabotaging or escaping your relationship.
With a trauma-informed Dance/Movement Therapist, you can also allow your body to become comfortable with gentle, minimal movements that can help you cuddle, rest, make loving eye contact, and lay calmly with your partner without fear (shown in the bottom right section of the infographic above).
In sum, the movement and play that is unique to Dance Therapy can help you become deeply comfortable and satisfied with intimacy instead of running away from it.
Get on the right path to healing trauma from your body and nervous system.
Many people spend decades and thousands of dollars in traditional therapies trying to heal their trauma. Unfortunately, even the most popular therapies are scientifically shown to be limited in accessing trauma stored in the non-verbal brain and body.
Even alternative approaches, such as EMDR and Brain Mapping, are often not enough to fully heal from the physical body or the nervous system.
This makes trauma healing a very frustrating journey for so many people. They often blame themselves for being “un-healable” and decide that they’re broken.
This is NOT true!
Every human being is 100% neurophysiologically capable of healing in a way that truly lasts, because we all have wiring and neural pathways that can be rewired from fear and overprotection, to love and openness.
My unique, scientific-backed process via Dance Therapy has helped hundreds of clients finally heal from past trauma and transform their relationship (even after decades of trying in other therapies).
You can heal too, but you need the right methodology.
Sign up for my online course (ranges from free to $20 USD) to begin a unique, body-based learning experience that will teach you:
- Science-backed education about how trauma is stored in your body and nervous system. You’ll gain an understanding why it has NOT been your fault you haven’t healed yet from past trauma.
- Gentle, guided body-based movement that is necessary for integrated healing. This is crucial if you want your mind’s intentions to match your body’s behaviors in relationships.
- An embodied approach to healing that has helped hundreds of clients break unhealthy relationship patterns and let in healthy, lasting love.
